Jan van Huysum

Jan van Huysum - First landscapes, then flowers and fruit

Jan van Huysum was born in Amsterdam on 15th April 1682. As the son of the landscape painter Justus van Huysum, he followed in his father's footsteps, according to the latter’s wishes - as did his brothers Jacob and Justus. While his older brother Jacob von Huysum proved to be a gifted copyist of his brother's works as well as that of Claude Lorrain, Gaspard Poussin and other contemporary painters, his younger brother Justus von Huysum impressed as a powerful painter of battle scenes, but died early at the age of 21. Like his father, Jan initially painted landscapes, and did so quite successfully. His true calling, however, lay in the depiction of flowers and fruit, which he did so with unrivalled subtlety on a light background. With his floral still lifes enlivened by bees and butterflies, he became one of the most sought-after painters of his time and was hailed as the "phoenix of flower and fruit painters".

An obsessive eye for detail

Jan van Huysum was considered to be extremely meticulous and, unlike most other painters of his time, took great care to ensure that everything he painted was actually there. A wealthy client was forced to wait months for her painting because the artist was missing a yellow rose, which he needed as an indispensable model for his intended composition. Despite his demonstrated independence and artistic innovation, he also remained true to the conventions of his time and adhered to the moralising tradition of Dutch painting in the form of biblical quotations with which he decorated his vases. However, it was above all the high level of craftsmanship that Jan van Huysum displayed in his floral still lifes that inspired his contemporaries, influenced the style of painting well into the 19th century, and still manages to delight the eye of the modern viewer.

The artist's fear of forgery

Jan van Huysum led an extraordinarily reclusive life and treated his surroundings with great suspicion - not least for fear of falling victim to counterfeiters. For this reason, he denied almost everyone access to his workshop, including his own brothers. This caution was probably not entirely unfounded, as his older brother Jacob profited considerably from the imitation of his painting style in England. The same applied to the only pupil whom Jan van Huysum taught: Margaretha Haverman's style was so close to that of her teacher that the latter was highly sceptical of his pupil's success and eventually fell out with her. Jan van Huysum was not a recluse, however: he married and left his wife a handsome fortune of 20,000 guilders after his death.

Jan van Huysum died on 8th February 1749 in his birthplace and hometown of Amsterdam. The largest and most impressive selection of his works can be admired today in the Louvre in Paris.